Birth Story and C-Section Pictures

My best friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!
For pictures, info and the such go to www.mrssnuggles.blogspot.com for all the info.
I'm so proud of her!! :) xoxo

Sleep Deprivation

For the past 2 weeks I've been having some major problems falling asleep. Staying asleep doesn't seem to be a problem for me--as my husband would say, I could drive the cows home with my snoring--I digress....

Scientists don't even know why we have to sleep. We all know what the consequences are when we don't. We get groggy, irritable and depressed. I've been feeling like that a lot lately...and it's hard to understand or reason why.

The fact of the matter is, I can't seem to turn off the inner voice in my head at night. I seem to review the events of the day, sometimes in great detail and I can't stop it. I kick myself for getting up so late, being those 10-15 minutes late getting into work, not finishing the work from the previous day, forgetting to make my lunch, or any other such meaningless thing I dealt with.

I really realized that this sleep deprivation affected me this morning while heading out to work. I stood, with eyes 1/2 shut, waiting for the elevator to open and take me downstairs to work. It took a good 2 minutes before I realized that the elevator wasn't coming because I forgot to press the button.

I suppose I'll have to do what I did back in my university days when I went through a similar situation. It was suggested that I just pull all of my ideas out of my head and put them onto paper. That way I could just write the thoughts down, think about whatever it was when I wrote it down, and leave the thought on the paper. It's worth a shot at least....for my own sanity!

Girl Baby Names

Again...not pregnant.
Again...not trying! OK?
On to the blog!

So after having a fairly easy time with boys names...we decided to rank the girls. Let me tell you; it was not a fun time.
I had strong feelings about some names and the hubby had strong feelings about the names he chose.
Here are the results:



Now,I love the name Meghan. I don't know why--I guess that's the beauty of name picking. You can just like something without a reason as to why!
Sophia is a classy, traditional name and Michelle is just really, really nice.
On the other hand, hubby loves the name Maia. Now, I like it too, otherwise it wouldn't have been on my list to begin with. But the hubby and I are on completely different ends of the spectrum for Maia and Meghan for that matter!

Our "ranking" of girl names is more of a blurry mess.
We have a tie for third place, fifth place and a three-way tie for sixth place! We both like Emma and Sophia, and it was fairly high on both of our lists. I don't even know how Bridget made it on there; I guess it was a bit of a last minute add on!

Ah well; this exercise was a lot of fun for the two of us. We learned a lot about each other, and had an absolute blast! Who knows, maybe, one day, it'll be more of an activity with serious consequences as opposed something to pass the time.

Boy Baby Names

No, I'm not pregnant.
No, I'm no trying.
Good; now that we have that out of the air, let's get onto the blog!

My best friend just had her first little baby. A beautiful, healthy baby girl. She named her Miranda, after much thought and debate! An absolutely beautiful name for a beautiful little girl!

My husband and I thought about what we would name our children if we were ever blessed enough to have children. I had previously chosen 10 different boys names and girls names and had shown them to my husband. We decided to have some fun with it and decided to rank the names separately and see what we came up with. The boys names were fairly clear cut, but the girls names.....well....let's stick with the boys names for now.

The pleasure of 'chosing' names is the very fact that we get to explore, choose and have some great fun thinking about the future. So what we have chosen, may not be the same names other would choose--all part of the fun! Anyhow, here are our lists.



As you can see, we agreed upon most of the names...at least roughly the same order. We both absolutely love Xavier. It's just such a great name! I love Sebastian, but the hubby doesn't--which is fine. Who knows, my tastes may change over time and may dislike Xavier over time, and the hubby may tell me that Sebastian is a name he really likes afterall.

All I know, is that we had a LOT of fun with this....I'll show you the girls 'mess' tomorrow....You'll see what I mean tomorrow!

Dermatillomania

For those of you who don't know, I have an insanely bad "habit". I say "habit" because it's so compulsive and so intense that I feel it has to be an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). After doing research one night, I found out there's a name for it. It's called dermatillomania or "compulsive skin picking".

I know what you might be thinking--that this is just a bad habit. Something similar to chewing nails or swearing. Without exaggerating, this habit is much, much worse. I often get into a 'trance' like state, and pick without even KNOWING I do it. My husband will call my name a few times before I snap back into reality, I'll suddenly wonder why I'm holding a pair of tweezers picking at my cuticles, and even Stinky T has even shouted my name a few times louder to get my attention while I'm doing this.

There have been inferences made on some of the websites out there that may hold true for me. Anxiety, depression, stress relief have all been documented reasons as to why one who has this condition suddenly becomes triggered into starting to skin pick.

Honestly, I can't explain why I do it. I can't explain why I do it because most of the time I'm doing it without even knowing I'm doing it. My CSP has been mainly with my fingers, but has progressed to my lips and toes. It's been bad enough for me to put bandages around each of my fingers (because of how sore they get, to stop from picking, for my fingers to heal properly, to prevent infection, etc). I decided that I had to do some research, or get more information on what is going on.

During my last physical, I mentioned the problem to my doctor. He stressed that dermatillomania has not been officially classified as an OCD, but one may be able deal with the triggers of CSP. In turn, this may help avoid the skin picking to begin with. He recommended working through a book called "Mind Over Mood". I purchased the book in February after my appointment with him, but have not worked through it. The book deals with cognitive behaviour and cognitive behaviour therapy. Basically, the book is supposed to help deal with the feelings and emotions that can make you act out in a specific way--depression, panic attacks, anxiety, anger, guilt, shame, low self-esteem, eating disorders, substance abuse and relationship problems (I'm not saying I have all of these by the way!!).

So, if you see me with a bottle of polysporin and some bandages, you'll know why; when you tell me to "stop picking!" and I look like I'm about to rip your face off, you'll know why; and when you ask me why I have 2 or 3 bandages on at one time and I only respond with a shrug, you'll know why. One website quoted exactly how I feel when someone tells me to stop picking:

At times, the skin-picking compulsion is as strong as the need to breath ....

And you'll hear others saying "Stop picking", without realising they may as well be saying "Hold water in your hands".

Congratulations Michelle & Adrian

Congratulations Michelle and Adrian! May you have a long and happy life together...and enjoy your trip to Hawaii!!

Want to Come With Me to the Bathroom?

Honestly folks, I could write a book. I could write a book of the things that happen in this office, and no one...not a single solitary person would believe it.

For example, I'll use what happened not 10 minutes ago (identities have been concealed for...you'll see):

Office Lady: "Do you want to come with me to the bathroom?"

Me: *puzzled look* "Why?"

OL: "Oh, because there's a lady in there"

M: "Huh?"

OL: "Yeah, she's selling jewellery. But don't announce it or anything!"

M: "What!?"

OL: "Yeah, she's not allowed to sell it out in the open, so she's selling it out of the shower stall in the bathroom."

Now folks. I don' t know about you, but I thought I should have some back up or something heading into the bathroom. What the HELL would you have done if you someone approached you asking if you wanted to purchase jewellery out of the bathroom!?

M: "Ok, let's go."

*Open door*

And there she is. In the shower stall of the bathroom....selling jewellery. She's got this fancy set up, with black velvet and all.....out of the shower stall.

Jewellery Lady: "Oh hello there, I don't think we've met"

M: "Yah-ha."

JL: "These are all wholesale jewellery pieces made with real Swarovski crystals"

M: "Yup, I've seen enough"

And it isn't even 10:30 yet.....